Mar. 23, 2014

Written by

James Fisher

The News Journal

MILTON — Gov. Jack Markell, drumming up support for his infrastructure spending plans, told a Sussex business group the region’s reputation with vacationers would suffer if water quality problems are not fixed.

“People think this area is attractive and has lots of recreational opportunities. It’s good for property values,” Markell said in an address to the Milton Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. “But if people realized the facts we’re laying out here, do you really want to live in a place where the water is as dirty as I’m going to show it is?”

Markell, a Democrat, is proposing two capital spending plans that would mean higher taxes.

A proposal to spend $500 million more during five years on transportation system improvements would be partly paid for by increasing the gas tax by 10 cents, to 33 cents a gallon. The state’s gas tax has stayed at 23 cents a gallon since 1995.

He also wants lawmakers to increase property tax bills to fund water quality improvements through 2030. Most homeowners would see a $45 annual increase, with large commercial or industrial properties paying up to $25,000 a year.

Markell said the cleanup plan would not favor the northern part of the state, where industrial pollution has historically been concentrated, at the south’s expense.

“You can pretty much guarantee that the money that’s generated in a county from my proposal would be spent in that county,” Markell said.

John Booros, Milton’s vice mayor, said he was inclined to support the gas-tax proposal because it would raise money from out-of-state residents who filled their tanks here.

“With how many people who are here on the weekends, more and more of them living in Maryland and Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, they’d be contributing. Not just the residents here,” Booros said.

Anthony DelFranco, marketing director for a Milton-area senior center, was skeptical about raising the gas tax.

“Fuel is already at all-time highs. And around Sussex County, you have to do a lot of driving back and forth,” DelFranco said.